Eye contact video telephony

• US 5,666,155 A
• Filed: 06/24/1994
• Issued: 09/09/1997
• Est. Priority Date: 06/24/1994
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Lucent Technologies, Inc. (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Lucent Technologies, Inc. (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Mersereau, Keith Owen
• Primary Examiner(s): Kuntz, Curtis
• Assistant Examiner(s): PALAN, STEPHEN C
• Application Number:
  US08/265,366
• Time in Patent Office: 1,173 Days
• Field of Search: 348/13, 348/14, 348/20, 359/459, 359/454, 359/447, 359/448, 359/443, 359/601, 359/629, 359/625, 359/741, 345/32, 379/53
• US Class Current: 348/14.16
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 27/02 Viewing or reading apparatus stereoscopic systems G02B30/00
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 3/0018 Reflow, i.e. characterized by the step of melting microstructures to form curved surfaces, e.g. manufacturing of moulds and surfaces for transfer etching
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 3/0056 arranged along two different directions in a plane, e.g. honeycomb arrangement of lenses G02B3/0043 takes precedence; miniaturised objectives for electronic devices employing wafer level optics G02B13/0085
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/144 camera and display on the same optical axis, e.g. optically multiplexing the camera and display for eye to eye contact

Abstract

An apparatus for creating an illusion of eye contact in a video telephony system includes a video camera and a display screen. The video camera is aligned with the display screen so the viewer'"'"'s image is transmitted by the video camera with the illusion of eye contact. The display screen has an array of lenses defining part of a first optical path, for transmitting to a video camera a viewer'"'"'s image. An array of regions interspersed among the array of lenses defines part of a second optical path, for directing to the viewer, displayed images. The array of lenses and the array of regions are each too small to be separately resolvable by the human eye, so that the lenses do not interfere with the perceived quality of the transmitted viewer'"'"'s image, and the transparent regions do not deteriorate noticeably the video display images projected to the viewer.

Claims

1. A video display and image sensing system comprising:

means for displaying video images that can be seen by a first viewer when the first viewer'"'"'s eyes lie on a first optical path;

image sensing means for generating a video signal representative of an image of the first viewer;

the image sensing means being located on a second optical path that includes a part of the first optical path including the eyes of the first viewer so as to give to a second viewer viewing an image of the first viewer an illusion of eye contact;

wherein the improvement is characterized in that;

the display means comprises an array of lenses defining part of the first optical path, and an array of regions defining part of the second optical path;

the array of regions are distributed among the array of lenses; and

the array of regions and the array of lenses each have a length and a width of less than three hundred microns, whereby the array of regions and the array of lenses are so small as to be substantially unresolvable by the first or second viewers when viewing displayed video images.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein:

the array of lenses comprises means for transmitting part of the displayed video images and for blocking part of the viewer'"'"'s image;

and the array of regions comprises means for transmitting part of the viewer'"'"'s image and for blocking part of the displayed video images.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein:

the array of lenses and the array of regions comprise means for simultaneously transmitting the displayed video image and the viewer'"'"'s image.

4. The apparatus of claim 3 wherein:

the array of lenses and the array of regions are formed in a first member;

and the display means comprises a projection lens for imaging said video images onto said first member.

5. The apparatus of claim 4 wherein:

the first member is flat and has first and second sides;

and the array of lenses is located on the first side of the first member.

6. The apparatus of claim 5 wherein:

the array of regions are substantially transparent regions;

and the image sensing means is located adjacent the second side of the first member.

7. The apparatus of claim 4 wherein:

the array of regions comprises a mirror.

8. The apparatus of claim 6 wherein:

each lens comprises a substantially transparent microlens.

9. The apparatus of claim 5 wherein:

the array of regions comprises an array of substantially reflective regions in a first side of the first member;

and the image sensing means is located adjacent a second side of the first member.

10. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein:

the image sensing means comprises a video camera;

and the display means comprises a flat screen in which the array of regions and the array of lenses are defined, and a video projection system for imaging said video images onto said flat screen.

11. The apparatus of claim 10 wherein:

the array of lenses comprises an array of microlenses that define part of the first optical path, each microlens having a substantially circular periphery with a diameter of less than three hundred microns;

and the microlenses are substantially uniformly distributed on the fiat screen.

12. An eye contact video telephony system comprising:

a display screen;

means for projecting onto said display screen, video images that can be seen by a viewer;

means comprising a video camera for sensing and transmitting an image of the viewer as the viewer watches video images;

said display screen comprises an array of lenses and an array of regions, said array of regions being interspersed among the array of lenses;

the array of lenses comprising means for directing to the viewer, video images;

the array of lenses and the array of regions being too small to be individually resolvable when conventionally viewed by said viewer;

and the array of regions comprising means for transmitting to the video camera said viewer'"'"'s image, simultaneously with the projection of said video images to said viewer;

said video camera being aligned with a position on the screen toward which the viewer looks to observe video images, whereby the viewer'"'"'s image can be transmitted by the video camera with an illusion of eye contact.

13. The apparatus of claim 12 wherein:

the display screen directs video images from a first side thereof toward the viewer;

the array of lenses define a first optical path from the projecting means to the viewer;

the array of regions define a second optical path from the viewer to the video camera, part of the second path being displaced from the first path to allow the video camera to be displaced from the projecting means.

14. The apparatus of claim 12 further comprising:

means for forming video images;

and wherein the projecting means comprises a lens between the forming means and the display screen for projecting video images substantially onto the display screen.

15. The apparatus of claim 12 wherein:

each lens of the array of lenses has a substantially circular periphery of less than about three hundred microns in diameter.

16. The apparatus of claim 15 wherein:

the array of lenses comprise

an array of elements formed on a substrate by replicating the configurations of an array of meniscus shaped plastic material.

17. The apparatus of claim 15 wherein:

each of said lenses is a transparent lens;

and the array of regions is a transparent region;

the viewer is located on one side of the display screen, and the video camera and the means for projecting onto said display screen, are located on the opposite side of the display screen.

18. The apparatus of claim 15 wherein:

each of the lenses is transparent, and the array of regions is reflective;

and the viewer and the camera are on one side of the display screen, and the means for projecting onto said display screen is located on the other side of the display screen.

19. The apparatus of claim 12 wherein:

the array of regions is a mirror;

and the array of lenses is transparent;

the viewer and the means for projecting onto said display screen are located on one side of the display screen, and the video camera is located on the opposite side of the display screen.

20. The apparatus of claim 12 wherein:

each lens of the array of lenses is a microlens which is separated from the other microlenses;

and the array of regions are interconnected.

21. A video telephony method comprising:

projecting an image on a screen that can be seen by a first viewer when the first viewer'"'"'s eyes are directed along a first optical path;

sensing the image of the first viewer on a second optical path that includes a part of the first optical path upon which lie the first viewer'"'"'s eyes;

transmitting and displaying the image of the first viewer so as to give to a second viewer viewing an image of the first viewer an illusion of eye contact;

wherein the improvement is characterized in that;

the screen comprises an array of lenses defining part of the first optical path, and an array of regions defining part of the second optical path;

the array of regions are distributed among the array of lenses; and

the array of regions and the array of lenses each have a length and a width of less than three hundred microns, whereby the array of regions and the array of lenses are so small as to be substantially unresolvable by the first viewers when viewing displayed video images.

22. The method of claim 21 wherein:

the array of lenses transmits part of the displayed video images and blocks part of the viewer'"'"'s image;

and the array of regions transmits part of the viewer'"'"'s image and blocks part of the displayed video images.

23. The method of claim 22 wherein:

the array of regions and the array of lenses simultaneously transmit the displayed video image and the viewer'"'"'s image.

24. The method of claim 23 wherein:

the projecting step comprises the step of forming a first display and then using a lens to image the first display on said screen.

25. The method of claim 21 wherein:

the array of lenses comprises an array of microlenses that define part of the first optical path, each microlens having a substantially circular periphery with a diameter of less than three hundred microns.